Wednesday March 2 2016 Doors open 6:00. 6:30 (sharp) to 9:00 OCADU Auditorium, 100 McCaul St., Just South of the AGO

The Series: Indigenize or Die

​It is widely recognized that the dominant economic model of exploitation and domination of people and the planet is unsustainable and destructive to all life. The ship of global imperialism and colonization has hit an iceberg. While the majority of the world's inhabitants suffer the consequences of runaway capitalism and globalized war-making, the very few on the upper decks continue their party with business as usual, blissfully ignoring the realities.

In this somewhat aggressively titled series, "Indigenize or Die," we will deconstruct the myths of the dominant culture, explore a more truthful historical perspective and how that manifests today. Then, through the lens of decolonization and re-indigenization, we will explore together possibilities for an ecologically sustainable and socially-just way forward. We ask, how can we ensure the survival of complex life on this land in accordance with its legitimate laws and the laws of Nature?

The intent of the series is to weave an understanding of history and current reality into developing a practical "go forward" plan for this land. We will be joined by other Indigenous people from both here and elsewhere around Mother Earth throughout the year.

March 2: An evening with Wendy Phillips

As our survival on this planet requires us to relearn that which we have forgotten, or has been forced out of us, we are fortunate indeed to have traditional Anishnaabekwe Seer, Pipe Carrier, Sweat Lodge Conductor and Traditional Healer, Wendy Phillips, to lead us.

Wendy comes not only with traditional knowledge gained from the elders and traditional ceremonies, but also with the other foot planted firmly in academic qualifications and business practices.

On February 3, 2016, Ka'nenkariyo Lefort presented the Onkwehonwe (Iroquoian) perspective of the Beaver Bowl Treaty (Dish with One Spoon) that governs this land on which we reside (1). Wendy presents the Anishnaabe (Ojibwe) perspective - the other pillar of the treaty for this region that includes 21 Indigenous nations. Each comes from an oral tradition of historical and ceremonial knowledge passed down through the generations, and each is equally qualified to speak on behalf of their people.

Having observed first-hand the effect of Wendy's compassion, spiritual knowledge and deep understanding has on her community, as well as her concise articulation of issues, Kevin Best and David Burman are thrilled that we have the opportunity to experience the wisdom of this unique and powerful woman who will lead us through the next fundamental step in our process of decolonizing and re-indigenizing.

Guest speaker Wendy Phillips:

Wendy Phillips is Ojibwa of the Bald Eagle clan of Wasauksing first Nation. Having been taught by the elders in the oral tradition has enabled her to take on the spiritual role of Ahnikgokon - one who works for the spirits. She is a Seer, Pipe Carrier, Sweat Lodge Conductor and a Traditional Healer, with the responsibility for knowledge of creation stories, calendars, prophecies, leadership, clan, traditional governance, women, men, relationship, marriage, rights of passage and medicine wheel teachings.

Wendy also holds a Masters degree in Environmental Studies and is academically qualified in Indigenous studies, business administration, career counselling and life skills coaching amongst others. She has held management positions in a wide range of organizations, most recently as executive director of Nogojiwanong Friendship Centre.

This unique set of education, skills and experience has enabled her to help many people maintain their spiritual, physical and mental well-being. Her journey has allowed her to share the traditional knowledge, conduct ceremonies, educational, cultural awareness workshops for secondary, post-secondary institutions, the private and pubic sector within Canada and USA. Her stated hope is to help future generations to preserve our traditional knowledge

Guest host for the series Kevin Best:

Kevin Best has focused on how to create a just and sustainable society through activism, innovative business and restoring Indigenous society for over four decades. Of mixed heritage, through adoption he self-identifies as Anishinabeg of the Martin Clan. He has worked with Indigenous people throughout Turtle Island, consulted with Greenpeace and pioneered green energy in Ontario. He is currently working on a start-up called Odenaansan (Village or “the little places where my heart is”), an integrated, culturally-based approach to restoring Minobimadzin (the good life) through sustainable food, energy, housing and water in Anishinabe communities. Passionate about decolonization and re-indigenization, he is committed to spreading understanding of these life-giving possibilities. He has recently joined Mayor Wilson as a Consulting Partner.

Unify Toronto Dialogues invites you to series that will inform, empower, and help equip you to play your part in bringing the next society into being.

This moment in history is unique. We're the first generation to feel the impacts of climate disruption, mass species extinction, peak oil, and global economic crisis, not to mention the nuclear age. And we're the last generation that can do something about the mess the industrial age has left us in.

Luckily, the study of evolution shows us that species can make transformative adaptations when faced with a crisis. So, this is the time to write a new story of what is possible for humans, and we are the people to do it.

Here's an alternative to denial, overwhelm or despair: join us for this series. In supportive community, let's admit we've never been here before and don't know what to do. From that fertile place of humility, let's listen together for practical and collaborative ways forward.

Foundation (Sept. 29)What is this unprecedented moment in history?What are its challenges and opportunities?

We explored these questions through powerful videos, dynamic group processes, and active conversations, using top-quality materials from the Awakening the Dreamer Symposium (and its youth adaptation, the Generation Waking Up Experience, or "WakeUp" for short). We looked at what's meaningful and possible for the world right now and our role and best contribution to the thriving, just and sustainable future we want to see. Whether you made it to our session or not, you can watch the Symposium online on your own time or buy the DVD.If you feel inspired you can help host a WakeUp or Awakening the Dreamer Symposium for your friends, organization or community. GenUp and the Pachamama Alliance give you everything you need. You can contact us to bring us in, or facilitate it yourself!

If you want to go deeper into these questions, sign up for the Game Changer Intensive. This seven-week online course by the Pachamama Alliance educates, inspires and equips you to be a pro-activist leader and a game changer in your community. The next one starts in January.

And if you’re feeling overwhelmed by the uncertainty of the times we’re in, you might enjoy this 2.5-minute video of Joanna Macy.

Facilitators: David Burman, Natalie Zend, Rebecca Dehmassi and Mickey JurankaSnacks provided by Manjit Dali Mann and Rebecca Dehmassi, support with set up by Bethany Zack.

Deepening (Oct. 27)What are our inner responses to this global crisis?How can they empower and enliven us to be the change?

In this session, we delved into Joanna Macy's The Work that Reconnects, a theoretical framework for personal and social change as well as a powerful set of group processes for its application. This work is about finding, and offering, our best response to the crisis of sustainability unfolding in our world. It offers tools that help us face the mess we’re in, as well as find and play our role in the collective transition, or Great Turning, to a life-sustaining society.

In the realm of this work, there is much more available for you to explore if you're curious. Joanna's latest book (co-authored with Chris Johnstone), Active Hope, guides you through the process, with exercises you can do on your own or in a group. Her book, Coming Back to Life, which has just been republished in an updated edition, empowers you to share the work with groups.

If you're looking for a simple way to continually open to your dark and light feelings about the times we're in, you might enjoy the simple practice of "Breathing Through," which you can do in the midst of your daily life. In this 10-minute video, Joanna guides you through the practice.

And if you want to explore this work more deeply, set up an "Active Hope" reading group with your friends. This can become a shared process to deepen community, support each other and become more resourced in addressing concerns about the world. This online guide will give you all the resources you need. Contact us if you'd like support in this.

Facilitation by Natalie Zend; snacks and flower arrangements by Zora Ignjatovic; welcoming and space holding by Jessica Vogt and David Burman; facilitation support by Susana Ochi. Sponsored by the Transformative Learning Centre or TLC (with thanks to Edmund O'Sullivan, Blake Poland and Natalie Abdou).

Moving Forward (Nov. 17)What would a sustainable, fulfilling future look like?What can we actually do to bring it about?

In this final session, we will focus on envisioning a fun, beautiful future society in harmony with the natural world. We'll explore tangible feet-on-the-ground actions and vote-with-your-wallet strategies for co-creating a future worth looking forward to. The session will be inspired by Kaia's latest book, Visions: Co-Creating Our Future.

Testimonials about similar events with series facilitators:

"I finally know I could make those changes in my life that I have wanted to do for so long.""Inspirational. Transformational. Meaningful and so supportive. I feel empowered."

Series Facilitators

David Burman (Sept. 29)

A founding member of Unify Toronto, David has been facilitating Symposiums since 2009. In 2013 he helped train 20 young people as facilitators of its youth adaptation. In addition to active involvement in social justice and ecological issues, David is a dentist by day, a lecturer in Aboriginal Health by night, and a potter on the weekends.

Kaia Nightingale(Nov. 17)

Kaia, MA Psychology, cofoundedTransition Ottawa and is part of a team developing a local alternative currency. She is an urban sustainability practitioner, speaker, writer, workshop leader and group facilitator. She has just published Visions: Co-creating Our Future, a global energy descent and environmental clean-up plan focused on creating a fun, sustainable future.

A feet-on-the-ground exploration in High Park hosted by Mark Hathaway.

This month, Unify Toronto Dialogues took it outside into nature.

Our August session took advantage of the glories of the season by taking the dialogue out-of-doors, and expanding it to the more-than-human world.

Together we connected and engaged with the wider Earth community to find energy, insight, and guidance for our work to bring about a life-sustaining society.

Through experiential practices, we opened our hearts and senses to the wisdom present all around us in the more-than-human world. We also explored where to find the voices of nature in the midst of the city and dialogued about how nature inspires, sustains, and informs us as we endeavour to transform ourselves and society and restore ecological health.

About guest host Mark Hathaway:

Mark is an adult educator who researches and writes about the interconnections between ecology, economics, social justice, spirituality, and cosmology. Mark worked for many years as an ecological and social justice activist. After completing his degree in math and physics, he lived in Peru for eight years where he helped co-found a small non-profit working in alternative literacy and leadership training using popular education. More recently, Mark has worked with ecumenical social justice coalitions, interfaith ecology initiatives, and in the eco-justice and partnership work of The United Church of Canada. He is currently completing a PhD in adult education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (University of Toronto) where his research focuses on transformative learning, worldviews, and the cultivation of ecological wisdom. He also teaches an undergraduate course on ecological worldviews. With Leonardo Boff, he co-authored The Tao of Liberation: Exploring the Ecology of Transformation (Orbis Books, 2009), a broad synthesis covering such diverse fields as economics, ecopsychology, cosmology, and spirituality in the search for wisdom to address the challenges of the times we live in.

Ryan Genereaux, actor, singer, dancer and all-round inspirational performer moved us in ways we never expected, challenging us to become the change.

In this fun, interactive session, participants expanded their capacity to embody a state of being that creates inclusiveness, empowerment and connection.

We explored ideas that energized a relationship with the contrast we experience in our personal lives and as part of a movement toward greater support of life on this planet. We explored ways to uncover and express our values and relate to them in a way that supports their manifestation. Through exercises, we anchored the association of personal values, global vision, and embodied manifestation. Multiple senses were engaged to clarify a reality in which respect for the earth and unique, creative expression manifest in individuals, systems and projects that benefit everyone involved.

Every step is the destination...every point is the path. Make a point to step into the path as creator and adventurer. You and I are perfect as the center and beginning of this story we are living. You and I are expressions of unconditional love in this journey we are being. - Ryan Genereaux

About Ryan Genereaux:

Ryan is a physical actor, singer and sound improviser, dancer, multi-media artist and inventor. He embodies inclusiveness in his speech, his actions and his vision. Empathy, compassion and creative freedom are at the core of his life force. He encourages all to realize that anything we desire is possible and the journey starts with the adventurer, accepting where they are. He has been a regular at the Unify Toronto Dialogues.

A special dialogue with leadership educator, facilitator and Juno-nominated pianist Michael Jones, inspired by his forthcoming book:﻿

June’s Unify Toronto Dialogue hosted leadership educator, facilitator and Juno-nominated pianist Michael Jones, inspired by his forthcoming book: The Soul of Place: Reimagining Leadership through Arts, Nature, and Community. The book is expected shortly, and will be available in August’s Design with Dialogue as Michael returns to OCADU with a second session for the book launch proper. In the meantime, his brief brief article titled Recovering the Soul of Place: Reflections on Place-Based Leadership is available here.

Michael’s approach to placemaking is radically different than the current trend in urban planning and city-building. His book and view is a platform for community leadership grounded in the essential humanity of understanding place, nature, and creativity.We are shifting from the industrial age and the age of information and technology to the age of biology. We are now asking, “how do we create spaces for life?” “How do we align our thinking with how nature thinks?” He asks us to create places as living systems inspired by biology and interconnection.We explored the four patterns in Michael’s book that underlie the soul of place

Homecoming – Where is home and how do we find our way there?

Belonging – How can the connective tissue of life-giving relationships align us with the essence of nature and how nature works, connects, and thinks?

Regenerativity - What does it mean to make the invisible visible, to contribute to the conscious evolution of life?

Carnival - How can we gather together on the square or in the commons, bringing together diverse energies, democratic spirit and upturning the old for the new?

The event was uniquely facilitated to engage multiple modes of experiencing and presencing the patterns. Michael Jones told several stories about his experiences in embodied leadership and his musical learning journey. He played several pieces while participants listened, contemplated, moved or held small group dialogues. Our gathering hosted dialogue around the four themes and patterns. An integrated sketch by Patricia Kambitsch formed a visual story of the experiences and dialogue in the room:

"By looking at place not only as something to return to but also something to grow out from –orienting us to the future and not only the past; and by realizing that a place is not an object or a thing, but a power and a presence, we can partner with place in a way that is itself deeply transformative, opening our hearts to the experience of beauty, aliveness and possibility."- Michael Jones, "Recovering the Soul of Place"

About special guest Michael Jones:

Michael is a leadership educator, dialogue facilitator, writer and Juno-nominated pianist/composer. His most recent book, The Soul of Place, is the third in a series on Re-imagining Leadership. Others in the series includeArtful Leadership and the award-winning Creating an Imaginative Life. Michael has also been a thought leader with the MIT Dialogue Project and Dialogos and other prominent leading edge universities and centres. He has co-chaired several place-based initiatives and spoken on the leader's emerging role as placemaker in a variety of forums including The Authentic Leadership in Action Conferences (ALIA), The Society for Organizational Learning (SoL) and many others. As a pianist/composer Michael has composed and recorded fifteen CD's of his original piano compositions and performed as a solo pianist across North America as well as Korea and Japan. He has been integrating his music in his leadership and dialogue work for over twenty years. See www.pianoscapes.com to learn more about Michael and his work.

Watch Michael's TEDx Talk on "Who will play your music? The art of leading imaginatively":

"Who am I really? When do I feel most present and alive? What am I uniquely called to do? Where is home? What is my relationship to beauty? How do I let go? What is my inspiration? How can I best serve the common good?

"In a time of uncertainty and sudden change, leaders will need new questions, ones that help to develop qualities of being that are more organic, creative and whole. It signals a time when leaders will need to develop a capacity for experiencing and understanding a new and more subtle intelligence, a way of knowing that is not a separate mental function, but rather the source of an imaginative response to our world. As a kind of sense organ, this intelligence reaches out and makes tentative contact with wholeness, that is, things of an order larger than we can see directly, making visible that which is hidden, so as to begin to draw into awareness that which cannot yet be heard or seen."